A Washington Post book review of the umpteenth anti-Trump book says "Fox News became the closest thing to state TV the United States has ever had." Did liberals miss the gush over Bill and Hillary Clinton, and then the love tsunami for Barack and Michelle Obama?
In his review of The Divider by journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Yale professor Jacob Hacker reports "In a single year, Trump tweeted about stories on [Fox's] news shows 657 times." Liberal Democrats have a much wider array of supportive channels to rely on.
Hacker still blames the "mainstream media" for Trump's win and "threat to democracy," claiming the dominant "character issue" of 2016 was Hillary's email server. That's just false. The dominant "character issue" was almost always a Trump issue, from the Access Hollywood tape to the angry tweets about fat beauty queens or people who were like "dogs" or "pigs."
Hacker concludes that in this "all-hands-on-deck moment" -- a moment that never seems to end in the war on Trump -- "we need journalists focused on the horizon and shouting quickly and clearly about icebergs ahead." This is exactly what's driven down the trust numbers for the press. The "icebergs" are always the "MAGA Republicans" and smooth sailing is defined as Democrats in control of all the levers of Washington power.
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